Every invention which tends to diminish the labour of men must be a benefit to the species; and it is wicked to argue against the use of any thing from its occasional abuse. If the application of mechanical inventions thus tends to improve the humanity of the public, if it reduces the necessity of hard labour, and diminishes the danger of many occupations which we contend it does, they who contribute to this object deserve our respect and gratitude. It may be true that we have now no such minds as those of Homer, or Bacon, or others of their stamp; but we should reflect that the circumstances which produced such characters are gone by, and great faculties have found other objects and other materials to work with. The use of mechanical industry not only improves and augments the comforts of domestic life, but it also, perhaps, does as much to soften the feelings of mankind towards one another as the precepts of philosophy. It tends to engender a detestation of hard labour, and to make the world consider not what the labourer may be able to do in tasking him, but what he ought to do without detriment to himself. It effects this by withdrawing, to a great degree, from observation, the distressing spectacle of men and animals toiling beyond their strength. It ought never to be forgotten, that it is to manufactories carried on by machinery, and abridgment of labour, that this country is indebted for her riches, independence, and prominent station among the nations of the world. Authentic estimates have shewn, that the use of machinery in Great Britain, is equivalent to an addition to the population of upwards of _one hundred millions of adult persons_. This immense accession of power, has enabled this country to withstand assaults, and to achieve objects of political ambition, that appear almost miraculous when compared with the geographical extent and numerical population of the kingdom. With respect to what has been advanced as to the probable injury that would result from the general adoption of the gas-lights all over the country, to the Greenland trade, it may be observed that the traffic might with more propriety be called a drain than a nursery of the naval force. The nature of the Greenland service requires that the crew should consist of able bodied sailors; and being protected men, not subject to the impress law, they are rendered useless for national defence. The nursery of British seamen is the coasting trade; and as the gas-light illumination becomes extended it will increase that trade as much as it diminishes the Greenland fishery.